If ye will persist in Emigration...

With so much talk on the tv and in the newspapers about the anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, I wondered what the reaction was like in Orkney. The first report of the disaster appeared in the Orcadian on the 20th April 1912 on the front page. Quite small and unassuming in the bottom right hand corner.

By the following week the news had spread and the ministers from the churches aired their views from the pulpits.

The Rev. John Pitcairn from St Magnus Cathedral said:

The Rev. George Millar from the Paterson U P Church said:

And the Rev. J Christie from the North U.F Church compared the death toll with the population of Stromness:

Ironically in the papers at the same time many adverts still appeared enticing people away from Orkney with offers of work in a new land, such as this one which looks to us now like a scene from a John Wayne or Clint Eastwood film:

And even on the same pages as news of the disaster were adverts like this one:

Many local shops capitalised on the trend of emigration with adverts like these:

I'd really like to know what "Dudds and Spracks" and "Catchy Boots" were.

By the following week more information was reported about the sinking and the heroism of some of the passengers:

And the suffering of the survivors:

And this final review in the Orcadian on 27th April 1912:

What's your Motto of the Month?

Ours is "If you know a good thing - pass it on"

So we will...

We have recently been re-organising our collections of SWRI papers and have found that we are doing well with six groups represented. St Andrews & Tankerness; Costa; Deerness; Harray; Rousay and St. Ola, as well as some Orkney Federation minutes too.  Below is the first minute of the Harray Branch from Aug 1936.

Together this makes up thirteen boxes. The new collection number is D127. We would like to thank all the staff who recently helped collate this collection together.

The collection includes minute books, membership lists, handicraft schedules; federation booklets; 15 minute sketch books, correspondence, tea rota books, anniversary and birthday celebrations, and many more interesting items.

Shown here is the first minute of the St. Ola Branch from Aug 1924.

I know there are more groups out there, so if you're looking for somewhere to store all your old minute books and documents, look no further, we'll be happy to take them!

For more information on the present groups of the Scottish Womens Rural Institute try their website at http://www.swri.org.uk/

Little Arrows

With the sad news that Darts legend Jocky Wilson died on Saturday I thought we'd look back at his first visit to Orkney (he visited, professionally anyway, twice).

World Champion Darts player Jocky Wilson in the Queens Hotel, Kirkwall,

June 1982

Jocky, aged 32 at the time, is seen in this photograph enjoying a pint in the Queens Hotel, Kirkwall. He was booked to play 20 local darts players for which he was to receive the handsome sum of £400. After the event Jocky told a local reporter that he had been a bit disappointed with his form on the night as he lost the first two games, but he did manage to beat the other eighteen!

For you statisticians out there during the whole event Jocky scored six 180s, sixteen 140s, eight 100 plus and sixty 100s.

Jocky is proudly showing his teeth in this photograph, every one of them false. Famously he had lost all his teeth by the age of 28 due to a combination of a love of sweets and a lack of brushing (take heed kids!) so when he won the World Championship he spent £1200 of his winnings getting some new ones made. He told a local reporter, however, that he removed them when he was playing darts because "the vodkas and coke don't taste right with them in".

Light My Fire

In the present age of soaring fuel costs it's easy to think that things were better back in the "good old days". Well, unfortunately not!!

I'm currently cataloguing the records of an Orkney Estate, D15: The Halcro Johnston papers. The records reveal the history of the Coubister Estate in the Parish of Orphir and, once cataloguing is complete, will be an extremely valuable source for researchers interested in family history, farming techniques and practices, and a host of other topics too.

I came across the following two documents yesterday which reveal a startling rise in the cost of the tenant's main source of fuel, peat.

Both documents are lists of subscribers who have paid for the right to cut peats in the property of Greenigoe. The first, dated 23 June 1865, states that the subscribers agree to pay three shillings for each tusker of peats they cut.

D15/6/2/6: List of subscribers 23 June 1865

However, less than a year later on 24 April 1866 the subscribers agree to pay four shillings for each tusker. A price rise of 33%!

D15/6/2/6: List of subscribers 24 April 1866

Not only that but, to rub salt in the wound, the Laird has also restricted the amount of cutting time allowed to ten hours a day and raised the price again to five shillings for peat cut in the month of August.

A tusker is an implement used to cut peats and traditionally a tusker of peats was measured as the amount of peat a man could cut from sunrise to sunset. This obviously varied depending on the fitness and stamina of the cutter as well as the differing length of day throughout the year, and on one reported occasion three men took turns throughout the day and managed to cut double the normal quantity!

It's that sieve again!

Here's an update on the use of sieves in punishments. While reading some very entertaining pages of the Presbytery of Orkney Minute book for 1639-1646, I found a curious entry about a woman called Janet Sutherland from South Ronaldsay:

"Ordaines the Brethren to make search in their congregations for Janet Sutherland fugitive from South Ronaldsay for turning the sieve and shiers, and to use diligence to put her home to her owne congregation to undergo orderly tryall" From the minutes for 3rd November 1643.

It turns out (pardon the pun) that sieve is another name for riddle, and in the Scottish National Dictionary there is the following definition and example of an explanation from 1825:

"As in English, a coarse-meshed sieve. Phrs: the riddle and the shears a method of divination (1) Fif., e Lth. 1825 Jam.:The riddle is set on its side, the points of a pair of large scissors being so fixed in it (separate from each other), that the riddle may be suspended by the hold taken of it by the scissors. One handle of the scissors is placed on the finger of one person, and the other on that of another. Some words, to the same purpose with the following are repeated : By St Paul and St Peter, did A.B. steal my yarn? or whatever is lost. If the person be innocent, the riddle remains motionless, if guilty it immediately turns round...This, among the other superstitious customs common on Halloween is also used as a mode of divination in regard to marriage."

This could be the reason why, as mentioned in a previous blog, the man was punished by being made to wear a sieve on his head. 

Reference OCR/4/1 Presbytery of Orkney Minutes 1639-1646

Our first encounter with sieves here.

Weird punishments of the week, part 2

Following our recent post about a weird punishment we've found another in the book Curious incidents from the ancient records of Kirkwall by W.R. Mackintosh.

Walter Beaumond, boatman, was charged on 6 May 1732 with having stolen a sheep from Quanterness Farm. His explanation was that he had come across a dead sheep so had skinned it and took the skin home "in his cassie". Having been found guilty the sentence passed was that Walter should go from the prison to the Rampart with the sheepskin fastened to his shoulders, where he was to stand for a quarter of an hour.

This didn't seem a terribly harsh punishment but, reading on, we discover that seven days later the Beaumond family were ordered to remove themselves and all their goods and gear from the Burgh "never to be seen there again". The hangman was given the sheepskin.

Happy pancake tuesday!

It's that time of year again when we all put back on any weight that we've managed to lose since Christmas by consuming large amounts of syrupy pancakes. "No!", I hear you cry, "I cannot because I don't know how to make pancakes". Well worry no more because you can find a lovely recipe for Orkney pancakes on the Scottish Council on Archives notice board at http://www.scottisharchives.org.uk/ediblearchive/cards/orkney-pancakes-recipe-card.pdf

The recipe is taken from an early 18th century cookery book in D14/7/1: Traill-Dennison papers. A note on the cover states that it belonged to Margaret Traill, daughter of John Traill of Elsness, who married James Traill of Woodwick in 1712. The recipe shown is a modernised version of the original, so if you would like to follow the original:

Take a mutchine of Sweet Cream 10 Eggs keep out some of the whites thicken it wt flower melt half a pound of sweet butter mix it among the batter wt a gill of Seck or half a Gill of brandy 3 ounces of Sugar half a grated Nuttmug let your pann be hot when you pull in the batter to make them and serve them up Nicely.

There's some other "lovely" recipes in this book which we might feature in the future. Anyone for Cods Head the Scots way? No, then maybe A Hash of Calves Head? Ok, maybe not.

Try and try again

L8804/4 - Colonel Henry Halcro Johnston

Now that the Rugby Union Six Nations Tournament is underway, we're remembering that Orkney had its own Rugby international. Colonel Henry Halcro Johnston played full back for Scotland against England and Ireland in 1877. On those occasions Scotland thrashed England 3-0 and annihilated Ireland 20-0 with a magnificent six tries and four conversions. Those were the days!

This is not Henry's only claim to fame. He was born at Orphir House in the parish of Orphir in 1856, the fifth son of James Johnston, 11th Laird of the Coubister Estate. He later qualified as a doctor in 1880 from Edinburgh University and entered the army as a surgeon. There followed a distinguished army career which resulted in a number of decorations before his retirement in 1913.

As if his life was not full enough Colonel Johnston was also an enthusiastic botanist, writing in numerous publications about the plants that he had collected in Afghanistan, Mauritius, the Canary Islands, Madeira, Egypt, Gambia, Natal, India and Sierra Leone. He also put together a collection of around 4,000 botanical specimens to be found in Orkney and Shetland, which became the property of Stromness Museum. After his death this herbarium was transferred to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh. His notes and observations have remained in Orkney and are in the Archive awaiting cataloguing.

A safe haven

Stromness pier, c.1900, photographed by R.H. Robertson

With the news of the proposed development of the site of Coplands Dock, adjacent to Stromness, we've been looking at the history of pier development in the town .

The bay at Stromness has long been recognised as a safe natural harbour for shipping. The Rev. William Clouston wrote, in 1794, that “although it is small, this is one of the safest harbours to be found along the north coast of Scotland”. The harbour had the necessary depth of water to accommodate large vessels, but lacked an adequate deep water pier, essential for the economic growth of the town.

The minutes of the Stromness Harbour Commissioners (S17/1) give a detailed account of the processes involved in the construction of the pier. In May 1877 the trustees were considering three possible sites. They examined the possibility of extending an existing structure, described as the “warehouse pier”, but after further consideration decided to purchase a parcel of land from the Commercial Bank, whose office was situated in what is now Stromness Town House. After some negotiation, which included a stipulation that the trustees opened an account with the bank, a parcel of land was duly purchased, including 101 feet (30.78 metres) of the waterfront. The pier was to be built at the southern end of the site. The specification issued by the trustees was for a stone built pier, breadth 30 feet (9 metres), stretching straight out from the shore, with a wooden “head” which would stretch to the north, but this was soon changed to make the head stretch south.

The Orkney Herald of 14 November 1877 carried a report that “there is every possibility of the construction of the new pier going ahead”. This was, stated the newspaper, despite the objections of a small number of locals, “objections the triviality of which could only match their selfishness”! In February of 1878 advertisements for a contractor appeared in a number of newspapers, with James Drever from Shapinsay eventually being chosen to build the stone section. Later on, the firm of A & K MacDonald accepted the contract to construct the wooden head section.

The construction work, from the time of the awarding of the contract, took approximately fifteen months to complete, and at a meeting of the trustees, held on 2 June 1879, they were informed that the pier was now “fit for the reception of vessels”. The trustees had already appointed a new harbour master, Mr. Terras, to oversee the new venture. He was to be paid £20 per annum, plus 5% of all rates collected at the pier over the amount of £200.

The pier was extended in 1900, and the photograph shows the steamer St. Ola leaving the pier after that time. Since then it has been further extended and improved on a number of occasions over the years, including the addition of an ice plant and a further extension in the 1990s.

Weird Punishment of the Week

As I was reading through a folder from the Ernest Marwick Collection, I stumbled on this weird form of punishment in North Faray.

It's certainly one of the strangest punishments I've read about, but I'll be on the look out now for more. If you've got any to share I'd love to hear about them.

Archive Reference: D31/2/4 no. 69
For information on the window tax try this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_tax

Rock the boat

On this day in 1909 Ernest Shackleton, leading the Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole, planted the British flag 97 nautical miles from the South Pole, the furthest South anyone had ever reached at that time.

It was on a later Shackleton expedition to Antarctica, in 1921, that Orcadian Norman Erland Mooney was appointed as cabin boy on board the Quest. Norman was one of two boy scouts chosen from over 1000 to accompany the expedition, the other boy coming from Aberdeen. Unfortunately the ship did not have an easy voyage, encountering heavy gales as they left England which continued throughout the first leg of the journey through the Bay of Biscay to Lisbon. Suffering severely from seasickness the initial word was that 16 year old Mooney would leave the ship there and return home but the plucky (some might say completely crazy!) youngster stayed on board for the next leg to Madeira. But the seas got worse and on reaching Madeira the doctor decided that enough was enough and sent Norman home. Shackleton himself sent Norman's parents a telegram declaring "regret necessary action solely in boys interest, he was always willing".

D49/1/3 - Telegram from Sir Ernest Shackleton to Mr. and Mrs. John Mooney, Kirkwall

This wasn't the end of Norman Mooney's adventurous ways. In 1929 he passed the Colonial Survey examination and received an appointment in Nigeria as a mining surveyor.

Happy New Year!

Orkney is shrouded in such heavy clouds that it could almost be night and there's another gale on the way, and I was awake far earlier this morning than seemed natural. But never mind, it's a new year so lets all gird our loins and look forward to the coming year. Happy new year to you all.

This time we're looking back a hundred years to 1912. This photograph shows a team of bankers from that year, found in collection D30 - Papers of Mary Robertson Sinclair.

I imagine this team would have been highly successful as any balls put in their net by their opponents would have taken three to five days to appear on the scoreboard.

Oh, what a night

Things got a bit breezy on Thursday night, and not just for us in Orkney but, it seems, for most of the country. You'll be happy to know, reader, that your favourite archive has not suffered any damage and that our water sooking up pillows did not have to be deployed.

We're used to a bit of wind in Orkney (yes, I know there's a joke there but I'm going to ignore it on the grounds of good taste) but sometimes, even here, we're not quite prepared for its severity.

Here's a photograph of Whitehall village on the island of Stronsay during a combination of high tide and gales. I'm not sure about the date but it looks fairly recent.

The worst weather, or at least the weather with the worst consequences, was encountered in 1952 and 1953 and is still spoken about today, and made headlines around the world. On both occasions hurricane force winds battered the islands and caused untold damage. In the storm of 1952 over 1000 domestic and 2000 agricultural buildings were wrecked or severely damaged. And then almost exactly a year later it all happened again!

This photograph shows some of the damage caused to Shore Street in Kirkwall. Hundreds of metres of the road along the front were washed away by the force of the waves.

All we need is snow now and I can tell you all about the blizzards of 1955 when people in the West Mainland had to have supplies delivered by lifeboat!

We've made The Times!! (other national newspapers are available)

The Times Newspaper features an article today about Orkney Archive receiving the first batch of papers of George Mackay Brown on permanent loan. We're very excited about this acquisition and are very grateful to Archie and Elizabeth Bevan for agreeing that it is important to keep the papers of such a famous and revered writer in Orkney.

The twenty one boxes contain manuscripts, short stories, plays and more, including some rarer or unpublished works. The initial cataloguing of the papers has been carried out by University of Glasgow Postgraduate research student in Scottish Literature Linden Bicket (seen in the centre of the photograph, with Assistant Archivist Lucy and Archie Bevan) who was awarded a British Academy Small Grant to carry out the work.

We will soon make a list of the collection available on our web page. Linden has flown south for the winter but will return in April 2012 to resume cataloguing of the next batch.

Fisherman's Blues

Fishing boat Keith Hall ashore at Birsay, 27 November 1921

Photographed by Tom Kent

The fishing boat Keith Hall had an eventful life before finally running aground at Birsay. Originally a German registered vessel named Darmstadt, she was captured during the First World War, taken into the Royal Navy, renamed Carbosin and fitted with a gun. She served with the Navy until October 1920, when she was sold to her new owners in Aberdeen and registered as a line fishing boat.

On 19 November 1921 the ten man crew of the Keith Hall had just completed a successful fishing trip to the seas around the Faroe Islands and were heading for home a little after seven in the evening. They were making good time until they ran into a bank of fog. Blinded by the dense fog, they were pulled off course by a strong tide and, as a result, ran aground on the north coast of Birsay at about half past five in the evening of Sunday 20 November.

A telegram was sent to Stromness asking for the urgent assistance of the lifeboat and the rocket brigade. As it was Sunday and Stromness being a hotbed of religious fervour both crews were attending a service in Stromness Parish Church when they received the summons for help. Much excitement ensued in the town, as the lifeboat men rushed off to the boat, still dressed in their Sunday best, and the rocket brigade crew hurried off to find motor transport to take themselves and their equipment to Birsay.

The rocket brigade won the race and were first to arrive at the scene, where they discovered the Keith Hall aground at the entrance to Skipi Geo. On investigation they found that the crew had already abandoned the fishing boat to its fate and were still at sea in a small boat. The lifeboat arrived and, looking around, detected a dim light out to sea. This turned out to be the missing crew, who were keeping well away from the shore.
Sadly one crew member drowned.

There was something of a tradition in the islands that wrecks were considered fair game for scavengers. And so it was with the Keith Hall. This resulted in a group of young men finding themselves in front of the sheriff in February 1922, charged with removing “various articles” from the wreck. The court heard that on the night in question, the same night as the above photograph was taken, a huge crowd descended on the Birsay shore from the surrounding districts. “Great numbers” went aboard the wreck and souvenirs were removed in large quantities. It was claimed by the defending solicitor that no malice was intended and that “use and wont” was the prevailing custom. The young men had, in fact, returned all the items that they had removed.

Unfortunately, for the men, the sheriff was not swayed by this argument. One was fined £30-10s with the option of spending eighteen days in prison, while all the rest were fined £3 or fifteen days imprisonment. All the fines were paid.